What We Are
by AHumblePotato
Summary: This is my first and likely last story on FanFiction, and as such, I should hope that you enjoy it. It is a Zootopia fanfic in all its childish glory. And Hazmat, please try to keep the commenting to a minimum.
1. Prologue

The rifle's grip had long been warm in his grasp, his digits rippling along its length in worried anticipation. His breath smoked along the weapon, the moisture adhering to the cold metal and becoming frost. Not built for the cold, he suppressed a shiver and returned his attention to the building he was watching through the scope. Still nothing. He stole a glance at the watch on the inside of his left wrist; 4:37 AM. He'd been posted in the condemned apartment complex for about six hours now, and there was no sign of that cursed hare.

He was crouched back and away from the window, well out of sight from the outside. Four stories up, he had a clear view of the warehouse from which his quarry would appear. Or least, he was _supposed_ to. There had been nothing that would arouse any amount of suspicion in this part of Tundratown, the most exciting of which had been a pack of juvenile polar-bears tagging the front of the building he currently occupied. He paused his vigil to sip at the lukewarm canteen that was strapped tightly to his body to prevent freezing, and caught movement in his scope. A nondescript SUV had appeared and ground to a stop in front of the suspect warehouse. The engine didn't stop, and he watched it idle before the warehouse's office door puffed off its coating of fine snow before slowly wedging open and revealing his most hated enemy.

The hare was in most ways unremarkable. Taller maybe, than most of his kind, but otherwise he seemed a simple business-mammal carpooling home. Almost. It was almost five in the morning, for one thing, and of course, there was his infinitely telling patterning. Unlike every other known hare, this one had a set of tiger-like stripes banding the sides and back of his head, a pattern that continued up the backs of his ears, where they faded into black tips.

The rifle-bearer tightened his grip on his weapon and nearly snarled as he zeroed in. For too long this had gone on, this hunt, this game, and he was going to end it. The safety flicked off without conscious thought, and he dropped the crosshair right onto the hare's unsuspecting forehead, who had stopped in his tracks.

He froze, his claw halfway through trigger-pull, as the hare turned casually towards him, his eyes rising until he was looking right at him. For a second, nothing else existed, nothing could possibly exist in that fraction of impossible. He _knew._ Still frozen, he stared in growing horror as the hare smiled and cocked his head, as if asking a question, and suddenly things were very clear to him.

He snatched up the rifle and shouldered through the thin door with as much force as he could muster, then scrambled for the larger window at the end of the hall. Panic was shut out by decades of hard training, and his exit route crystallized in his mind. Out the window and down the dilapidated fire escape to the ground, and then away as fast as his long legs would carry him.

It didn't happen quite as planned.

He was a few strides away from the window when the bomb exploded, taking his footing and chucking him at the glass. A blast of hot air, hotter even than a Sahara Square afternoon, came crashing towards him, and he only just managed to tuck his limbs in before the force sent him into a shower of hard glass.

He was lucky he was in Tundratown for two reasons, one; the thick jacket he was wearing spared him from any serious gashes, and two; the snow beneath the window was deep, and even luckier, soft. He grunted as his lungs expelled air into the powder and felt his elbow bend just a little too far in the wrong direction, not enough to cause any damage, but it was mighty uncomfortable. He floundered momentarily while trying to extricate himself from the snow before clambering to a shaky stand. The cloud of black smoke dissolved quietly into the darkened sky, and car alarms were wailing for at least two blocks. He took just a moment to bind up the minor cuts he'd received; a blood-trial in Tundratown was like leaving a note with detailed instructions on his location. He also piled snow onto what little he had lost, more as a delaying tactic than anything else. He still had the rifle, slung over his shoulder as it was, and his sidearm hadn't left its holster without his knowledge. If it came to it, he'd fight if he had to, but as that was just one outcome, it was one he'd rather avoid.

He took off through the silent cold of the Tundratown night and didn't look back.


	2. Chapter 1

"Carrots, was it this cold last time we were here?" grumbled the red snout protruding from the tightened hood of a blue ZPD parka, "Because I'm pretty sure they turned up the A/C."

"Oh shush, you big fox baby." Replied the much less bundled-up rabbit, who had conceded just a light-blue scarf to the cold. "We are here on a case, remember?"

"Right…" The hood tilted up to face the defaced apartment building and whistled. "One heck of a boom, that's for sure," he remarked quietly.

Black scorch marks marred the brickwork around the now vacant windowsills all the way across the fourth floor, and shards of glass glinted like a new layer of snow around them. Given the building's already decrepit state beforehand, it seemed a miracle that the place hadn't just collapsed.

Heavy steps alerted them to an approaching mammal, and they both turned to meet an elephant decked out in firefighter gear. "Good thing this place was scheduled for demolition anyway," he said, "Because their job's already half done!" They chuckled for a moment before the fire-mammal continued. "Kind of a shame though, place is built like a bank. Still standing even after all that… but anyway, you two are cleared for investigation, or whatever it is you do."

"Thank you," replied the rabbit before she and her fox compatriot ducked under the yellow tape.

The fourth floor interior looked quite a bit like the exterior had, save the tatters of may have been wallpaper curling black on the soot-coated walls.

"Any evidence we might have found was probably destroyed," remarked the rabbit, crouching and observing what might have been what was left of a cockroach.

The fox nodded and drew back his fluffy-edged hood. "Well I found something, anyway." He replied, and as the rabbit looked towards him he pointed at where bomb must have been. The brick column that stood as the center point for the building had been reduced to dust, leaving a scaffold of internal steel beaming that had bent slightly outward at about halfway from floor to ceiling.

The rabbit hopped up and began snapping reference pictures of the epicenter while her fox companion began wandering through the scorched apartments. The only other thing of interest was what looked like a canteen half-melted to the floor in one of the rooms near a window.

"Why do you think someone would plant a bomb in the middle of nowhere?" Wondered the smaller of the two mammals.

"Maybe as some kind of prank?" replied the fox, chuckling, "but it seems just a little over the top for that." He made a casual glance out the large window and noticed something. "Hey, Carrots, what do make of that?" he asked, gesturing down at the disturbed snow.

'Carrots' bounced over and looked out at the rather odd-looking crater in the snow, which also had a set of suspiciously hurried tracks leading away from it. "It looks like this place wasn't quite as abandoned as we thought," she said and made for the stairs, "C'mon, Nick!" she called, and disappeared before she could see the fox smile to himself.

Unfortunately, Tundratown snow wasn't the best at keeping its memory, and the trail dissolved into nothing just a few blocks away. As far as who they belonged to, a simple comparison to Nick's footprint marked it decidedly canine, and a large one. They also recovered a shard of glass that had a trace edging of blood that went immediately into one of the rabbit's seemingly inexhaustible supply of sterile evidence baggies. One last sweep of the ruined building confirmed what they had previously observed, and soon enough they were parking outside Precinct One.

Clawhauser greeted them with what might have been a hello, but it came out more like a shower of sprinkles. He was still gathering them off his desk when they reached it.

"Anything of interest?" he queried before dropping the lost sprinkles into his wide mouth.

"Just a present for the guys in forensics." Answered Nick.

"Well, guess you should get on that, then." Confirmed the cheetah, before seeming to realize something. "Except forensics doesn't open up till nine," he checked his laptop, "which means you two will have to wait, like, two hours."

The fox and rabbit glanced at each other. "Want to do breakfast then?" asked the fox.

"Yes, yes I do." She replied.


	3. Chapter 2

They decided to wait for the forensics team to clock in at a Big Donut not far from the Precinct, and were discussing the development over a pair of blueberry muffins.

"Whoever this blood belongs to had some reason to be there, and wasn't expecting a bomb," stated the rabbit, and the fox nodded.

"And then someone knew he would be there and planted a bomb. Why?" he took a sip of his coffee and tried to think. He'd never even heard of anyone who'd go so far as a bomb to wipe a single mammal, but he did know there were some loonies out there.

"Too many questions and not enough answers. I guess we just have to wait until we can run what we've got through the Lab." The rabbit noticed that Nick was no longer paying attention and was scrutinizing something behind her. "What's up?" she asked and swiveled around, ears first, to see what Nick was looking at.

He was standing in line in front of the counter, looking like any mammal might while grabbing breakfast on his way to work. She thought he looked like tall, wolf-sized fox, except for the close trimmed mane of black fur that rustled out from underneath a light-blue ball cap on his head. He was wearing a simple white polo shirt set with a pair of faded green cargo pants. But the detail she noticed most was the tan square of a bandage stuck to his right cheek. She turned back to Nick, who was waiting for her to finish her scrutiny.

"You ever see a fox that big?" she said casually, prodding a response.

"He's not a fox," answered Nick, "he's a maned wolf."

"Well, mister knows everybody, do you know him?" she asked, having already come to the same conclusion as he had.

"This is likely the only time you'll hear me say this, but no, I don't" he said, glancing back up as the tall wolf backed out of the café, one paw holding a Styrofoam cup and the other helping him take a bite of a huge cinnamon roll. He walked right past their window, looking all the world like his morning had been no different than anyone else's, which, if what they were thinking was accurate, it most certainly hadn't been. The rabbit looked like she was ready to bolt out after him and demand answers, so Nick intervened in the most effective way he knew how.

"Judy, look." He said quietly, and she turned slowly back towards him. "We don't have any evidence, we don't have a name; we don't have anything except tracks that could belong to half the wolves of Zootopia and our own suspicion. Just wait for the science buffs back at base to get us a name, and then we can properly start this investigation, okay?"

Judy did not look happy, and displayed it by vigorously draining a good third of her orange juice. But she softened for a moment. "You're right. There's a code we have to follow. It's just…" she drifted off.

"Just what?"

"It's just that this the only interesting case we've snagged since Bellwether, and I guess I just got excited, you know?"

"Heh, yeah I know." Nick conceded, "But this is also technically _my_ first legitimate case, so I deem your excuse insufficient."

"What?"

"You heard me. Insufficient. Your excuse." Nick leaned back and crossed his arms. "If anyone has a reason to be excited about this case, it's me, not you." He gave a little self-appreciating grin while Judy chuckled and shook her head a little at his antics, temporarily forgetting about the coincidental sighting.

When they returned to the Precinct at half-past nine, they discovered Clawhauser giving directions to a tall, unassuming hare wearing a fresh ZPD uniform.

"Looks like you've got some competition now," joked Nick as they approached, and Judy gave him an exasperated glance before greeting the new recruit.

"Hello!" she called cheerfully. "Welcome to the ZPD." She extended a paw as he turned around.

"Oh, Hello." He replied a bit awkwardly, and shook her paw with obvious trepidation. "You must be Officer Hopps, first rabbit officer in the city." He then shook Nick's offered paw with a little more confidence. "And the first fox, Officer Wilde. Surely I am in the presence of giants."

"The only giants here are Francine and Walter," replied Nick, chuckling.

"And you must be Officer Harrison, second rabbit officer." continued Judy, trying to ignore Nick's comment.

"Oh, you can just call me John," he said, laughing nervously, "I don't think I'm used to being called 'officer' just yet."

If Nick had pictured the most simple and well, _boring_ , rabbit he could imagine, it wouldn't hold a candle to this hare's plainness. The only thing of note was the ice-white blue of his eyes, and even then, they too seemed to fade into his unobtrusiveness almost intentionally. It set him on edge as an ex con-mammal. He wasn't quite sure why he felt that way, or if it had to do with something else entirely.

"Well, Clawhauser here was just directing me to the Chief's office, so I'd better get going." Said the hare and bid the three of them farewell and made for the stairs.

"Nice enough guy, I suppose." Said Nick, more to himself than anyone in particular.

"You could say that." Replied Judy, "How much you want to bet Bogo gives him parking duty?"

"I was about to say the same thing, so no, that's not a bet I'd like to take. But anyway, any news on our friends in the lab?"

"They're ready and waiting." Answered Clawhauser, and after a brief thanks they made their way to the forensics department. A bison whose ID identified him as Doctor Grazer met them at evidence check-in assured them that a simple blood sample test wouldn't take more than ten minutes at most, and they made small talk about the case.

"I don't know, that guy at the café seemed pretty suspicious if you ask me." Judy began, "I mean, he fit our evidence a little too well, don't you think?"

"I know I've already said this, but let it go, Carrots." Nick sighed, "There are any number of things that would merit such a bandage, I mean we don't even know if it was a cut." He flipped through a few of the photos Judy had texted him. "All we know is that our guy was in the building just before or during the explosion," he said, pausing on a picture of the defaced snowbank. "Which means one of two things, one, he set the bomb and it went off before expected,"

"Or two, someone set them up." Judy finished, looking at nick expectantly.

"Right. But our first theory is almost immediately debunked by the location. What good does a bomb do if it doesn't blow anything up?"

"Plus, anyone working with that much firepower would likely be an expert about it, making a mishap unlikely." Judy added, jotting everything down on her notepad with a smaller, much more size-conscious carrot pen.

"Which means someone set him up," Nick concluded, "but who plants a bomb in an old building to smudge one guy? It's way too high profile for one thing, and it'd probably be crazy expensive to pull off…" he trailed off as he noticed Judy looking at him with that same smug look as when she'd pulled that little tax-evasion thing the second time they'd met. "What?"

"And you didn't believe me when I said you'd make a good cop." She smirked, and Nick realized that, as usual, she was one-hundred-percent correct.

"Ah, well, it's not that hard is all, given that I spent so much time dodging laws that I can tell when someone gets nailed by one." Nick replied, trying to gather back as much as he could from their most recent of many mental skirmishes, of which he was losing more every day.

"Whatever you say, Slick." She replied as Doc Grazer appeared from the lab. "What have we got, Grazer?" asked Judy, unable to retain all of her excitement.

"Well, we tested the sample in every way we know how, but I've never seen anything like it before." He said, shaking his heavily haired head.

"What do you mean?" they asked simultaneously, putting a surprised expression on the bison, who immediately brought back his professional face.

"Apparently, this sample doesn't belong to anyone." He clarified, then cleared his throat and glanced around before continuing, "The only thing we managed to deduce was that it was canine in origin, but beyond that, I've got nothing. Sorry."

"Oh, no, that's fine. You did what you could. Thanks anyway." Replied Judy, and she turned and headed towards records, Nick trailing behind with a salute to the bison, who waved back without enthusiasm. He returned to his office just off the lab, picked up his desk phone and punched a brief number in. He was answered on the third ring.

"Chief Bogo, we have a situation."


	4. Chapter 3

"If that wolf is as law-abiding as you seem to believe, then why isn't he in any of the recent census records?" Judy demanded as she scrolled through the W's of the species list, "There aren't even any maned wolves listed in here at all!" Nick looked, and she was, of course, right again. 'Wolves; Siberian' was the last one before 'Wombats.' He shook his head in defeat.

"Maybe he doesn't like voting?" he said noncommittally, and Judy just glared at him. She opened her mouth to say something predictable when her phone interrupted with a buzz. She checked it quickly and harrumphed.

"Bogo wants to talk to us," she said, then looked at Nick. "You don't happen to have any insight about why, do you?"

Nick leaned back and placed a paw defensively on his chest, "I have been nothing but a fine example of police standards since my induction, and do fully intend to remain that way," he proclaimed, "And for you to even imply otherwise is slander of the most grievous kind, I'll have you know." He finished with a corny flourish and put his snout in the air, all a ploy to create one of the sounds he had come to tremendously enjoy during their last few weeks as partners, her laugh. He succeeded.

"Whatever you say, Officer Wilde." She giggled, and headed for the door. Nick beat it to her and held it open.

"Ladies first." He said, maintaining the mantle she'd jokingly laid upon him, which she decided to take up as well.

"Thank you, good sir." She said in a lofty, queenly voice, and waltzed out of the records office more gracefully than any noble. It was all Nick could do to prevent laughing himself. Instead he came up beside her and offered an arm.

"Shall we?" he asked, mimicking her imperious tone and evoking another giggle. And thus the two set forth to Bogo's office.

Nick opened the door and Judy entered first, and either Bogo didn't notice, or more likely, he didn't care. "Have a seat," he said without looking up from the form he was reading. The two mammals, smaller combined than most of their co-workers alone, took the one seat available, Nick behind, Judy in front.

"What's up, Chief?" asked Nick from between Judy's ears, as per the usual. Bogo wasn't sure, but he had guessed that the tactic was intentional, putting the rabbit before him as a form of defense against his ire. The real reason was that it was the most comfortable way to occupy the chair, but Nick wasn't about to let the buffalo know that. Bogo lowered the file and eyed the two of them through his almost comically small eyeglasses.

"You're dropping the Tundratown Explosion case," he said, and before they could protest, he continued, "Turns out it was just a gas leak,-"

"We were there, Sir! That was no gas leak-" Judy attempted, but Nick dropped his chin onto her head in a plea for silence.

"And," Bogo said as if the outburst had never occurred, "we have testimonials from the gas company saying that the building's line had been accidently reconnected." He leaned forward, "So the case is closed."

"But someone was there," attempted Judy, and she looked up and over at Nick, who nodded.

"We have a possible victim here, Chief, we should at least-" he was cut off by Bogo's raised hoof.

"Just a kid making snow-angels and getting a bloody nose," Bogo said. "There. Happy now?"

"Not exactly," Nick and Judy grumbled in unison. Bogo seemed to soften just a fraction.

"Look, I now this was your first case, Wilde, but there'll be others, don't you worry." He said.

"Yeah, you're right." Nick said, already shaking off the news like he was so talented at doing. "Was that all you wanted us for?"

"Yes, I'd like you two to help Officer Harrison become acquainted with the city by the end of next week." He paused and glanced at his file again, "And take the day off tomorrow, both of you." He said, "You're making the rest of look bad by working so damn hard."

They left the office and almost toppled a stack of walking files. "Oh, terribly sorry," they said.

"Oh, no, our mistake, sorry." Judy replied without realizing she had just spoken to a collection of inanimate objects. Nick couldn't help it.

"Wouldn't want you to become un-alphabetized." He said, chuckling.

"Oh that is the worst," Judy said, "Un-alphabetized files are next to useless- how are you supposed to find anything!"

"Yes, well, I'd note that down if I had another set of arms," said the files, who turned to reveal a plain grey hare.

"Oh! Officer- I mean, John!" Judy said, masking her legitimate surprise well, better than she usually did, at least. Nick almost burst out laughing.

"That is my name." The hare said, offering a casual smile. "But right now I am also late delivering these, so if you'll excuse me," The fox and rabbit parted and let their new co-worker past. They watched the top of the files disappear down the stairs.

"He seems to be getting on well enough," Nick remarked, "Shouldn't be too much we need to teach him. Won't have to be dropped in the deep end like you."

"Yeah, but I had you." Judy whispered.

"What was that?" Nick asked.

"Nothing." She said, and Nick shrugged.

"So," he said after a moment, "You got any plans for tomorrow?"


	5. Chapter 4

They had agreed to meet at the same Big Donut that they'd visited while waiting for forensics to open, and Judy had, as always, arrived fifteen minutes early. The effect was just a bit diminished, however, because Nick had, of course, arrived twenty minutes early. He waved her over from their regular set of swivel stools and round table, and she hastily moved to her seat. Nick still had enough time to appreciate her outfit though. The light-blue scarf was back, topping a long, soft pink jacket that hid all but the bottom two inches of a modest black skirt, from which a set of black leggings connected her to the earth. Nick had made good on the one promise he'd conceded when returning from the academy, and had retired his treasured, if obnoxious, green shirt. His wardrobe had since taken a turn for the practical, and today he was fending off the autumn chill with a dark blue zip-up hoodie that offset his fur nicely. Judy, would never admit it, but it looked good on him. "Good afternoon, Nick." She said as she hopped onto her stool.

Since joining the force, Judy had seemingly made it a point to not call him anything other than Officer Wilde or Slick as long as they were on duty. And as being on duty was suddenly Nick's most common activity, she didn't use his first name often. So he had made it a point to say hers as often as he could. "Good afternoon to you too, Judy," he said, lingering a bit on the 'u' in 'Judy.' "What's for brunch? I'm buying."

"Are you sure? Didn't forget your wallet or anything?" she asked innocently, but Nick was no longer so easily prodded.

"No, no I did not." He said, proudly retrieving it from his pocket and displaying it to the rabbit, who gave a little clap.

"Great!" she said, "then I'll just have my usual."

Nick nodded. "One extra-raisin-y cinnamon roll and a hot chocolate coming right up," he said and made for the counter, leaving the rabbit to her thoughts for a moment, which invariably went to the case they were no longer working. She looked out the window in defeat, unable to pull the pieces into place, few as they were, and noticed something. If her mind hadn't been occupied by russet fur she might not have noticed, but it was him. The maned wolf who, according to the city's records, didn't exist. He was walking casually, as before, paws in pockets like any nameless mammal in the world. Except in her mind, he couldn't be. Super-cop mode engaged, and she couldn't help it. She spun around and grabbed Nick just before he managed to get back to their table, holding a cup in each paw and two pastry bags in his teeth. "Carts!" he managed to say before she blasted out through the poor café's doors, leaving a squalor of confused patrons behind them, "Wart are you during?"

"I saw him, Nick!" she said, as if that explained everything, "We can't lose him, hurry!"

He didn't have much say in that matter. She was doing enough hurrying for the both of them, and he'd paid hard-earned money for those two meals. Plus, he hadn't seen her this engaged since the Bellwether incident, and he didn't have the heart to stop her even if he could.

They careened around corners as fast as Judy could manage, but the wolf, who never seemed to move faster than a casual walk, always seemed to be disappearing around the next one until finally, he vanished altogether. Judy skidded to a stop, causing Nick to nearly topple over her. "Where did he…?" she mumbled as she turned her ears about, searching. Nick set the pastries and one cup atop a closed garbage can and took a sip.

"Judy, there isn't a case anymore, so there's no reason to find this guy even if you did see him." He said, trying to disengage her super-cop mode. And as usual, it worked.

"Sorry, you're right." She said, walking over and picking up her cup. "I just feel like something isn't right about all this. Why would Bogo shut us off like that?" she shook her head. "It doesn't add up."

Nick sighed. "I agree on that point. Something's definitely up, and we'll get to the bottom of it eventually, but not today. It's our day off, remember?"

"Yeah, it is, isn't it," Judy said and took a bite of her extra raisin-y cinnamon roll. She looked up at Nick. "Sorry for ruining brunch." She said.

"Oh no, I like standing out in the cold, actually." he said. "I've heard it's good for your circulation." He glanced around. "Plus it's quieter," he added. It was true, the side-street they'd come across wasn't far from the abandoned subway platform where they'd found Doug, and was blanketed with leaves that seemed to dampen the air so that little sound made it in from the rest of the city.

"That's my favorite part," said a voice form above that neither of them recognized. They both craned their necks back to see the maned wolf grinning down from a fire escape several floors above them. "But the circulation thing's a myth, so why don't you two come inside for a bit?"


	6. Chapter 5

The smaller mammals were dumbfounded. "Just give me a minute to get the door," the wolf called before ducking through a window.

"Well, that was not expected." Nick said, trying to bring some semblance of normalcy back into the equation.

"You said it." replied Judy, who was watching the unassuming door that had been standing behind them. "Now we might get some answers."

"Or this is a trap and we should be on our merry way," Nick said, but was forgotten when the door opened.

"Come in, come in," the wolf said pleasantly, "Wouldn't want you two catching cold now." Judy obliged and Nick followed suspiciously after.

"Any particular reason you use the window?" he asked, immediately deferring to his quick-jawed, street-wise persona that had saved his hide on more than one occasion.

"Well you see, I've lost my key and I'm just a tad bit scared of the landlord and I may have not mentioned it to him since, and I occasionally keep odd hours and wouldn't want to disturb the other residents." He replied easily and with a grin, as if it were a totally normal occurrence. "This way then," he added and headed up the stairs. It looked almost identical to Judy's apartment complex.

"You sure this is a good idea?" Nick whispered, "Because I'm not."

"We'll be fine," she replied, "We've gotten out of worse, remember?" she followed the wolf up the stairs, and Nick reluctantly followed.

"Here we are!" exclaimed the wolf when they'd reached a door on the fourth floor. "Casa Del Walker," he said and threw the door wide and motioned them inside. The apartment was larger than Judy's, with a kitchenette and a short hallway to a bedroom. Other than that, it looked like Nick's own abode, cluttered with various BugBurger bags and pizza boxes interspersed with laundry and cheap furniture. The only glaring difference was the stacks of binders that peeked out from under a jacket or a take-out box. "Sorry about the mess," the wolf apologized, "But I wasn't anticipating guests. Do make yourselves as comfy as you can manage," he said and vanished into the bedroom. Judy noticed something peculiar about the ceiling and pointed it out to Nick, who chuckled.

"Means he's got a bat roommate." Nick said, and noticed what could have been a tiny desk with an old typewriter stuck to it hanging inverted above another, larger desk that was occupied by a closed laptop.

"A bat?" Judy whispered, but before Nick could reply a small black shape walked across the ceiling from the bedroom and watched them curiously. The wolf reappeared and took note of Judy's expression.

"This is Scraggles," he said, gesturing upward at the bat, "Doesn't talk much, and even if he did, you probably couldn't hear him." He seemed to realize something, "Oh! I'm Charlie Walker," he said, and offered a paw, which they both shook in turn. "And you two are the duo who saved Zootopia from a sheep." He said, denying them introductions. "Officers Hopps and Wilde."

"That we are," replied Judy, enjoying the glow of fame for a moment. Nick still seemed skeptical.

"Indeed. Was there something you wanted to ask us, you know, as the first fox and rabbit on the force?" he asked impatiently, already tired of what he suspected to be a ruse.

"Yes well, about that," he said, his tone changing. He took a seat and motioned them to do likewise. "I'll explain everything." He said.

"I have been watching you for some time," he began, and held up a paw to prevent question. "We'd had our eyes on both of you for some time, but no one expected you two to come together on your own." He chuckled. "But that's the norm for you, I suppose. Anyway, I was thoroughly impressed with how you handled Bellwether. Blueberries, ha!" he laughed again, and Nick and Judy laughed nervously with him, "You two are first-rate crime-fighters, and as such I have a proposition to make. To put it bluntly, I need your help. And before you ask, it is related to the apartment bomb."

"I knew it!" Judy cried before she could stop herself, and realizing it, sat back down quickly.

"So you did," replied the wolf, "I'm the reason that bomb was there, as it was meant to kill me." He said casually, like it happened all the time. "Which seems appropriate because I was there to kill someone else." The skewed wall-clock suddenly got very loud.

"Is that right?" asked Nick playing the same game, "Who could have possibly drawn the ire of Charlie Walker to such a degree?"

"Have you heard of a mammal called Jack Savage?" asked the wolf, and Nick got very quiet.

"Who's Jack Savage?" asked Judy, who had decided she'd been out of the loop for too long.

"You said you've watching us," said Nick, trying to change the subject. "How?"

"How do you think?" replied the wolf. "Bats are quite good at going unnoticed, I've noticed."

"Nick, who is Jack Savage?" Judy asked again, in a tone that would accept no more diversion.

"A myth, a boogeyman, a story kids tell each other to freak their friends out. He isn't real, he can't be real." Nick was not an easily shaken mammal, and if this was freaking him out, then she wasn't going to be far behind.

"He is all too real, and a very real threat to the security of everyone in Zootopia. I know this all too well," he said quietly, a distant sorrow coming to his face for a moment before he came back to business. "I am asking you to help me stop him before his plan can come to fruition." He said, and stared at the both of them hard. "Of course you can decline, but as you know, I have had no success with the resources I have."

"Are you with the ZPD?" Judy suddenly asked, "Or the Special Forces or something?" The wolf seemed taken aback for a moment, but not for long.

"You could say that I'm part of a larger organization, but I will have to stop at that." He said. "Sorry, but it's not my call. So, are you in or not?"

Nick and Judy glanced at each other for a moment, and found strength in that. They both nodded.

"Splendid!" said Charlie and clapped his paws together. "So, Jack's plan. Long and short of it is that he wants to perfect the Night Howler serum as some form of mind-control system with him as its head." The fox and rabbit leaned back as he continued. "We're not sure if he was in league with Bellwether, but it's likely. Beyond that, we've got nothing."

Nick and Judy sat in silence for a moment, thinking. Judy then spoke up. "What does our Mr. Savage look like?" she asked sensibly. The wolf raised a finger, stood, and made his way over to one of the stacks of binders. He froze as someone knocked a specific seeming rhythm on the door. It sounded urgent.

Charlie sent a pile of pizza boxes flying as he rushed to the door and threw open the bolt neither officer had noticed him closing. The door came wide and the wolf caught a staggering mammal as he collapsed across the threshold. "Eli!" he exclaimed as he closed the door again. "What happened?"

Nick and Judy had stood up and helped Charlie lower the obviously wounded Eli into a chair. The metallic scent of blood assaulted both of their noses. Judy scrambled about in search of medical supplies as soon as Charlie told her where to find them, and Nick found himself suddenly applying pressure to a bullet wound in the mammal's abdomen with a wadded up dish towel. Judy found the military grad med-kit and handed it to Charlie who put it to use immediately. Eli squirmed and made a weird mewling whine that didn't sound like anything either Judy or Nick had heard before. They noticed that he didn't look like any mammal they'd seen before either, but their thoughts were scattered when he grunted out a tangible sentence.

"Charlie, they know we're here," he gasped as the wolf tightened the final layer of gauze around the wound. Charlie froze.

"We have to go," he said, no hint of panic in his voice, "Now."


	7. Chapter 6

The gun had warmed in her paws. She'd been sitting on her rickety bed for some time now, and had memorized every scratch, every line, every aspect of the diminutive firearm. She palmed the grip for the umpteenth time, feeling how the handgun fit her smaller paw a little too well. For the most part, it was the same as her tranquilizer gun, save in weight and consequence. Charlie had given each of them a perfectly sized weapon once they'd reached his second safe house, this one in the back of a pastry shop, in the full knowledge that they had been outlawed a long time ago. 'Just a precaution,' he'd called it.

Judy jumped at the sound of someone knocking softly on her less than sound-proof door, but relaxed when a voice followed. "Carrots, it's me."

She quickly opened the door, revealing an equally freaked-out looking fox.

"Hey Nick," she said quietly, "come on in." He complied, and leaned up against her short desk. Judy took her place back on the bed. He noticed her present atop the sheets.

"One heck of a day, huh?" he said, and she nodded.

"But it's not anything we haven't handled before," she said hopefully, "This doesn't sound that much different from Bellwether, does it?"

Nick scoffed. "I knew you'd say that." He said before they both fell into silence. Nick shuffled a bit, and produced his own gift from behind him. "Haven't seen one of these in a while," he said casually, and Judy flinched just a little bit on the inside. There was still a lot she didn't know about her partner, but she had long ago decided that his past was irrelevant to who he was now. Or at least that's what she tried to tell herself.

"I'd only ever saw pictures." She said, picking hers up and letting the magazine drop into her other palm. Live rounds glinted back up at her. She quickly reversed the motion, hiding the brass.

"Bit more dangerous than pictures though." Nick said, stowing his new sidearm. "What do you think Charlie meant when he said that Eli was a miracle?" he asked, changing the subject. The ever curious Judy had asked the maned wolf what kind of mammal Eli was just before he'd given them their guns. All he'd said was 'He's a miracle.' And left it at that. She'd been thinking about it ever since.

"Can't really say," She said, "Guess we'll have to wait and ask him himself."

Nick shrugged. There was a pause before he abruptly leaned forward, startling Judy with his sudden intensity. "I don't like the way any of this is going," he said, "There are too many unknowns, too many outcomes. I can't read the cards, and that scares me. If anything were to happen to…" He stopped as the moon escaped from under a cloud and the apartment was suddenly flooded with black and white.

"Happen to who?" Judy whispered.

Nick lost his voice. Everything was suddenly very tight, like all the air had been vacuumed out of the apartment. But he wasn't going to let her question go unanswered, not anymore.

"You." He whispered, quietly enough that any mammal with lesser hearing would have missed it. Judy was not one of those mammals.

Silence once again erupted from the walls and flooded the room as both mammals tried to come to terms with what Nick had just said. It was a long time before Judy spoke.

"Nick…" she began, "I-"

"I don't know what you two are doing, but the rest of the world is trying to sleep!" came a voice that shattered the silence and nearly gave Nick a heart attack.

"Leave the cops alone!" cried another voice from the same direction, "Can't you see they're having an important conversation?"

Nick and Judy sat in the now awkward silence for about five seconds before Nick could take no more.

"It's getting late and we have work early tomorrow, so I'm going to head home. Goodnight." He said quickly, heading for the door.

"Uh, yeah. Goodnight to you then, too." Judy said as he closed the door and disappeared. She stared at it for a while, thinking. She might have imagined it, but she was almost sure that when Pronk had surprised him, Nick had reached for his gun.

Briefing the next morning went no different than it ever had, and Bogo made good on his word.

"Harrison, I'm assigning you to Officers Wilde and Hopps for the day, they're going to show you the ropes." He announced, and the hare nodded.

"It's quite an honor," he said as they left the precinct, "To have the two most famed officers on the force seeing to my training."

"More like the only two officers who aren't four times your size, you mean." Joked Nick, and he and the hare had a laugh. Judy tried to. She couldn't figure out how Nick could be casual after all that had happened yesterday, so she chalked it up to his previous experience with hiding emotions.

Their shift passed without incident, or at least, nothing worth calling an incident, and soon they were back at the precinct and ready to head home.

"I am certain I am getting the hang of this." Remarked Officer Harrison as they left the building, "Surely I could have no better instructors."

"I don't know about that," Nick said, as he had notably taken up much of the conversing that day, as Judy seemed to be somewhere else. He knew were though, so he hadn't pried. "I'm not half as good as Lady Drill Instructor down at the academy." John and Nick had another laugh.

"I suppose you are right," the hare replied, "But she isn't half as fun."

They'd reached an intersection, and the hare mentioned that this was his turn. They had their farewells, and the rabbit and fox continued alone.

"Carrots?" said Nick, and Judy flinched.

"What?"

"We're going to be fine." He said softly, and suddenly Judy could do nothing but believe him.

"Right."

They reached the place where their paths diverged, but they spent some time there, simple proximity reassuring them. They watched the sun split itself on a skyscraper and leave its shadow on the street. Few mammals were about, so they both jumped at the sound of a trashcan clattering to the concrete behind them. They turned and saw a steel lid rolling out of an alleyway. They watched it spiral back around, and then rattle around and around before finally settling flat.

"Need some help with that trash?" asked Nick casually, but alarms were going off in his head, and he wasn't sure why, which set off a whole other set of alarms. He took a step, but fell back when his nose caught the breeze. "Carrots, we have a problem." He said and moved once again towards the alley, this time with a bit more caution.

"What is it Nick?" asked the confused and slightly alarmed Judy, whose nose wasn't quite as effective, and hadn't picked up that all too familiar scent. Nick stared hard at the shadowed alley, his keener night vision trying to pick out anything suspicious. The dark shape that suddenly rushed out at him definitely fit that description.

Nick ducked and fell back, unwittingly dodging a heavy nightstick that would have knocked him senseless. He managed to get into a fighting stance with Judy right beside him as the offending mammal rose up to his full height. The grey-black wolf was wearing a dark, unzipped hoodie, a pair of old basketball shorts, and a crazy smile. Judy and Nick took notice of the large amount of blood matting the fur on his stomach, and the amount he had left behind in his mad lunge at Nick. His eyes took the cake, though. There was nothing in them, no sense of any cognitive thought, no savagery, nothing. It was scarier than the Night howler serum. Judy drew her tranquilizer pistol without thought and planted a dart right in his arm. He glanced at it in what might have been confusion, then swung his club high and down with enough force to chip the concrete where Judy had been standing.

"I don't think he's in the mood for a nap, Carrots." Nick remarked as the wolf continued his silent assault, forcing Nick back several more steps. That was the other thing about him, he didn't say anything, didn't even grunt with the effort it must have taken to swing like that, he just kept grinning, bleeding, and swinging.

Judy had gotten behind him while he'd been occupied with Nick, and went for a hard kick to the back of his knee. The wolf shifted just enough that she missed, and the wolf spun on that heel and caught Judy with a reverse roundhouse that she couldn't avoid. She managed to catch most of the force with her paws, lessening the impact, but still hit the concrete hard. Nick saw all of it.

The wolf completed his spin to find Nick's fist waiting for him. The hit knocked him back a step, and Nick pressed his advantage. Or what should have been an advantage. Nick realized his error just in time to lean away from the lightning quick cudgel, and found himself severely out of balance. He rolled with it, coming back to a crouch and ready for another strike. He watched in humble appreciation as a pair of distinctive ears appeared behind the wolf's shoulder, and flinched as Judy's foot cracked like a hammer into the back of the assailant's head. The force knocked his ears forward and had his chin slamming into his chest. Judy landed gracefully at the same time as the club.

Nick was about to say something when he saw the claw rushing at his left side. He barely got his arms up when he was knocked hard into the side of a building. He heard Judy cry out through the ringing in his ears. Everything was too blurry, and his body wouldn't move. He could only watch as Judy tried to hold her own against the wolf. Every textbook technique failed, and eventually even her improvisations were found ineffective. Nick's heart twisted when the wolf caught her by the ears and lifted, causing her to grimace and make a sound Nick had never wanted to hear.

Anger flooded his veins and surpassed the pain. He staggered to his feet and called out.

"HEY!"

The wolf paused, turned towards him and dropped Judy. Nick could feel his own blood running down the right side of his face, but it was inconsequential to him. If he didn't stop this now, Judy would be dead.

Nick found a place inside the anger, the place he hadn't had to find for a long, long, time now. It was the place he had found that night outside after the Junior Ranger Scouts had humiliated him, and he had used it only rarely since then. He needed it now.

The wolf came on again, with no significant decrease in speed despite his condition and the length of the fight so far. It didn't matter anymore. The right hook drifted lazily over his head, and Nick used his compressed form to propel his counterattack. Every inch of his body slammed his balled fist into one of the two bullet wounds he could see all too clearly. He heard a wet exhalation and knew he'd done serious damage. Before the wolf could react, Nick was behind him, taking his footing by driving punches into the back of both knees simultaneously. The wolf went to his knees and suddenly Nick was in front of him again. Something that might have been a shadow of fear flashed through his empty eyes as they made contact with Nick's green ones. It didn't last long.


	8. Chapter 7

Nick was alone. Which, in and of itself, would not have been odd. He'd spent the larger portion of his life alone, after all, but now, even though it should have been a familiar feeling, he was uneasy. The endless white void didn't help, either.

He sat down and tried to make sense of his surroundings, or the lack thereof. The last thing he remembered was the feeling in his right paw as it connected with the mad wolf's jaw, and he looked at his digits pensively, wiggling them about for a moment. _Everything's in working order,_ he thought casually to himself. The distraction didn't last long.

He found the loneliness quite unpleasant. He almost couldn't believe that he had spent so much, too much, of his life like this. Being the cognitive mammal he was, Nick decided to try and remedy the loneliness, and as such his thoughts invariably wavered to Judy. The realization came as no surprise, but instead as worry. Was she alright? Was there another crazed mammal?

Nick stood and began looking around his completely blank world. Finding nothing of import, he decided to start running, and oh, did he run. After a good long while, however, even his canine lungs could take no more and he slowed to a crawl, his chest heaving. He was suddenly very tired and tumbled down to the invisible floor before flopping onto his back. His breathing was suddenly much harder, and he willed it to slow before the white began to fade towards black. Suddenly unable to move, Nick could only watch until he could watch no more.

In the dark he felt nothing but a soft pressure on his chest. It was a long time before he realized that his eyes had closed, and he had to focus hard to open them. When they did, slowly, everything was blurry for a moment but then came into shadowed focus. He found himself laying at an angle in what must have been a large armchair. He took note of the vaguely familiar living room then turned his attention to the weight on his chest. What he saw stopped his breath for a moment.

She was sprawled across his torso, like she had been closely listening for his heartbeat and had fallen asleep, and every single instant of the loneliness melted away. Even if he could move his sleep-locked limbs, he couldn't disturb the look of perfect sleep on her face, which was only inches from his own. She shivered a little tiny shiver, and his tail came to life without thought and fluffed up and around, falling like a soft, downy blanket over top the both of them. This seemed to please the sleeping rabbit, who proceeded to begin to make herself more comfortable by curling up with her head pressed against the bottom of Nick's chin, her cheek against his neck. He felt her make some find of pleasant rumble and then settle, and he released a held breath slowly.

Even though his head still ached slightly and the sides of his chest felt a little out of order, Nick was happy. And he knew full well the reason why. "You dumb bunny," he whispered to the ceiling.

"I'm not a dumb bunny," Judy mumbled into his fur, giving him a little tickle.

"Of course not." Nick replied, knowing full well she was still asleep. "And I'd know." He chuckled softly. "I know better than anybody."

"Shush," Judy grumbled, batting weakly at Nick's face with a paw. "We're sleeping." The paw flopped back down to wrap around his neck.

"Are we now?" Nick chuffed. "Because it looks like you're the only one sleeping here."

At this, Judy slowly rose and fixed a sleepy glare on him. Nick could not help but notice that the pink shirt she was wearing had a few too many buttons undone. Somewhere beyond the fog of having just woken up, Judy noticed the brief lapse in eye contact. She stiffened suddenly, circumstance demanding that she be fully awake. She took note of where she was currently, the state of her shirt, and then finally Nick, who just said, "Good morning, Carrots. You seem to have slept well,"

Nick watched as her ears, which were strait up, darken to crimson, then flop down behind her as her chin dipped and her face fell into shadow. "Nick…"

"Hey, before you get mad at me just know that I could not have possibly had anything to do with-" he was forced into silence as Judy suddenly engulfed his head and neck with a full-bodied hug.

"Don't ever scare me like that again!" she cried into the fur on his cheek. With no other options, Nick cautiously returned the hug, his larger paws holding her now trembling form with as much care as he could muster.

"Sorry, Carrots, I'll make sure it doesn't happen again." He said and pulled her away so their eyes could meet. "Promise." He wiped a tear from her cheek with a thumb.

"Sorry, am I interrupting something?" said a voice, and the two mammals jumped, Judy spinning towards the voice, keeping herself between it and Nick. They both relaxed once they identified the speaker.

Eli strode into the room and to the side of the chair both smaller mammals now occupied. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Officer Wilde," he said cheerily, "That bonking you took had you out cold for just under a day, and cracked a few ribs. Nothing a few days rest won't fix."

"Felt like a Black Friday incident, that's for sure." Nick replied, "How's the other guy look?"

Eli's face darkened. "He didn't make it, and before you go on a guilt trip, he would have been a goner even without your stunt. Think of it like you put him out of his misery." He said quietly. The mood in the room darkened.

"Who was he?" Nick asked.

"One Carl Haze." Eli replied. "Just a bum who was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"What do you mean?"

"It might have been a test of the mind-control strain of Night Howler," Judy answered, and Nick stiffened.

"We believe that our friend Mr. Savage decided to test the limits of the control by mortally wounding the subject after exposure," Eli explained. "It's perfect, because the subject dies before anyone can take note of their behavior, or blame it on the injuries themselves." Eli stood and paced about slowly. "Whether or not you two were specifically targeted is unknown at this point, but Charlie doesn't want to take that risk."

"Why would anyone target us?" Judy asked fervently. Eli stopped pacing.

"Because you two symbolize everything Savage despises." He said, and moved to a couch on the other side of the room. "Anyway, things have been a bit too dangerous around here, so we're going to make use of all those vacation days you've been avoiding using." He said, grinning.

"What?" the fox and rabbit said in unison.

"Don't worry about it," Eli said, ignoring their incredulity. "Charlie has already explained the specifics to Bogo, and he's in agreement. Actually, if either of you show up at the Precinct tomorrow, he has plans to personally see that you get your time off," he chuckled, "So I'd suggest you spare him the trouble."

The living room, which Nick now recognized as the one where they'd left Charlie and Eli two, no three, days ago, was quiet for a while before Judy spoke up again.

"I hope this doesn't come across as rude, but I've been wondering, what kind of mammal are you, Eli?"

Eli's eyebrows rose for a moment before the eyes beneath them softened with mirth. "You noticed, huh?"

"It's part of our job to be able to identify mammals at first glance, so…"

"Its fine, it's fine. If you really must know I'm what happens when a wolf and a mountain lion fall in love and have a little surprise." he said it like it was a simple fact of life, which for him, they supposed, it was.

"So you're a-"

"Yep. You're looking at a one-hundred-percent legitimate myth. A hybrid."


	9. Chapter 8

Nick had fallen asleep again, his head back and wobbling with the bumps in the road, despite having been asleep for almost two days beforehand. She decided that it was just a side effect of the concussion. As it was, however, it was all she could do to keep her eyes open herself. She decided to keep her mind awake with conversation, and there was only one option.

"If you don't mind my asking," she asked quietly, not wanting to startle him, "What was it like? Being a hybrid, I mean."

If Eli was at all surprised by the question, no detective alive could have detected it. He glanced at the rearview mirror at his two smaller passengers. "If you're asking how I got through school, then know that I didn't." he said casually. "Far as most of the world's concerned, I don't exist."

"What about your parents?" Judy asked.

"Don't remember them," he replied, "Charlie's been my guardian my whole life." A sadness passed through his eyes and would have been missed if he hadn't been speaking with a certain police officer.

"What happened?" she asked, fully expecting no answer.

"I suppose there's no reason not to tell you, so, to answer your question, they were murdered. By Jack Savage."

Judy found it hard to breathe for a few seconds, and the car was silent, save the sound of the tires on the asphalt. Nick made a small grunt and shifted slightly before stilling again.

"Charlie told me everything once I turned sixteen," Eli continued, "My parents were from the country, and once they eloped, the kept to themselves in the mountains. Then I came along, and there were… complications. My father rushed my mother to a proper hospital, and paid a pretty penny to keep us on the hush-hush. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite hush-hush enough." He paused and took a steadying breath. "Charlie told me that my dad fought like he was possessed, that he managed to get three of them with his shotgun before he went down. Seven shots is what it took." He chuckled softly. "Wish I could have met that crazy wolf," he remarked before continuing, "He gave my mom enough time to duck out the back, but not quite enough for her to get away." He paused again, bringing up the memories of that day in the apartment when he had learned of himself. "Charlie came in with the investigation team and found me under some tree roots the next morning, sleeping like the baby I was. He took me in and raised me like a normal kid. Never had to go to school though, he took care of all that. Wasn't till I was sixteen and he told me who I was and what had happened that I decided to follow his line of work.

"And there you have it, my whole sad backstory." He finished, and glanced back at his one still conscious occupant. Judy sat stock still, her eyes huge and watery, but with a steely conviction behind them that was likely permanent.

"Why?" she asked quietly. Eli's eyes went back to the road.

"Jack Savage, first and foremost, despises predators with almost fanatical devotion. Why? We don't know, only that he, for all intents and purposes, wants them all either dead, or as his new plan suggests, completely subservient. Secondly, we have deduced that he is more than disapproving of inter-species relationships, which I can attest to personally." He said, and was suddenly distracted. "Ah! Here's our turn."

Nick's head flopped to the left as Eli made a right turn onto a long driveway. Judy dried her eyes and looked out the window to catch a glimpse of the cabin through the trees. It was by no means large, but neither was it small. It seemed to fit perfectly into the middle ground, not too big to lose the coziness of a cabin, but not so small as to feel cramped. It was nestled humbly between multiple large pine trees, like the earth itself had reached up to hold this little place steady despite the toil of the rest of the world.

"Nick, wake up you sloth, we're here." Judy said and gave Nick a shake as Eli parked the small car. Nick's eyes popped open on the third shake.

"Already?" he said groggily and glanced out the window. "He wasn't lying when he said cabin in the woods, was he?" He stumbled out of the car and Eli handed him his old high school backpack that contained a grand total of three shirts, two pairs of pants, and a toothbrush. Eli slapped a key into his paw.

"Alright, the place is yours for the weekend, don't trash the place. There's enough food for a month, so you're fine there, and the internet's good enough for Petflix; phone reception, not so much. And don't let anyone in if you don't know who they are."

"Alright, dad. I think I got it." Nick said sarcastically, and Judy stiffened behind him.

"Good." Eli said, ignoring the comment and moving back towards the driver's side of the car. "See you Monday!" he said cheerfully, ducked into the still-running car and pulled out and away.

"Well I guess we should start vacationing," Nick said, turning towards the heavy oak door. The door swung in smoothly and without complaint, and Nick quickly flipped on the light. The cabin's layout was simple, a short hallway from the door ended with a larger room that was divided by a dining bar into kitchen and living room, with two doors facing opposite in the hall leading to two bedrooms. The one bathroom came off the kitchen. "Well," Nick said, "beats having paper for walls, huh?"

The kitchen was indeed well-stocked, and after a great deal of can-opening, they had prepared a sensible dinner, which they ate while watching a predictable mystery movie on the large, expensive TV in the living room. They made small, meaningless talk for most of this time, adjusting to the way they would be living for the next two and a half days. Darkness fell sooner in the mountains, but it wasn't really dark, as the moon rose and every star in the sky seemed to arrive to look at the planet. One of them suggested a walk in the dark, and soon they were side by side in a wide meadow, close enough to see the lights in the cabin window, but far enough that they wouldn't intrude.

"I don't think I've ever seen this many stars all at once before," Nick said into the night and Judy giggled.

"I'd almost forgotten what they looked like myself," she replied, and this time Nick chuckled.

"Like anyone could forget this." He said, waving a paw across the sky. Judy gave him a light shove with her body.

"Har har." She said, expecting another offhand remark from Nick, who didn't say anything for a moment.

"If you want to be sad for Eli, I can't stop you." He said abruptly. "But being sad about it isn't going to help anyone."

"How do you-" she began, but a quick glance from the fox told her everything.

"He knows it better than anyone, I expect." Nick continued. "That's why he's following Charlie's footsteps. He has to do something, not sit around and mope like most mammals would." His voice lowered to a nearly inaudible level. "Like I did."

Neither of them said anything for a while then. Nick, as was the usual, broke the silence again.

"You know what my favorite star is?" he asked suddenly.

"No I don't." Judy answered, anticipating another joke.

"That one right there," he said, pointing at a small star that, through some strange space phenomena, seemed to be twinkling violet. Judy saw it, and something inside her finally broke apart that felt like it should have never been kept together.

"Which one?" she asked, and Nick bent down to better position his arm to allow her to find it. Instead, he found her paw gripping his collar. He turned toward her in surprise,

"Wha-?" was all he managed to say before he lost control of his lips.

Every thought Nick had ever had seemed to run out of his ears and into the forest floor in an attempt to make room for what he was experiencing right then. All he could see was Judy's closed eyes that were suddenly so close to his own, and all he could feel was the touch of her small lips on the end of his muzzle. Some instinct he didn't know he had returned the kiss without his consent on the terms that he could not have given it any sooner, and then his eyes were closed as well, every form of sensory input focusing directly on the contact between them.

Judy's mind, in stark contrast, was in overdrive. For the fraction of a second before Nick returned the kiss, she had run through at least ten possibilities as to why, but had found peace an instant later. It was several seconds before her thought process slowed enough to register what she had just done. She pulled away, Nick swaying forward slightly before opening his eyes.

"Well then." He mumbled, dizzy from the occurrence, "That just happened. Not that I'm complaining or anything."

Judy's heart was beating much faster than it normally would have been. All she could do was nod, as she wasn't sure she could trust her mouth right then.

"Any chance of it happening again?" Nick asked, and Judy made no response other than to turn towards the cabin. "Right. You have a very tight sleeping schedule, if I remember correctly." He said, and Judy nodded.

Soon they were standing with their backs to their respective rooms, Judy on the right and Nick on the left. Nick spoke first.

"So, uh goodnight, and all that." He said and Judy nodded again before turning and bumping into the closed door, which she then proceeded to open with more difficulty then she would have cared to admit. She was though and gone in a blink.

Nick stared at the closed door while leaning against his own, and was only just then beginning to question the… He shook his head. Overthinking it was the last thing he wanted to be doing right then, he didn't want the memory spoiled. He entered his room without a sound, letting it click softly behind him.

He picked up his old backpack off the slightly too-big bed and set it on the floor. He reminisced on the moonlight pouring through the large window, and although it pained him to do so, he drew the curtain shut, knowing his light-sensitive eyes would deny him sleep if he didn't. He noted that the heating system hadn't completely filled the building yet, and that the room was a bit chillier, but the bed looked more than adequate to compensate for the reduced temperature. He wondered briefly if Judy was experiencing the same dilemma, and a very peculiar image flitted to the forefront of his thoughts. He tried to shake it away, but only succeeded in pushing it back into his subconscious, where it stuck.

A sudden wave of fatigue washed over him, and he only managed to halfway prepare for sleep, toppling over with only his shirt removed. He shivered slightly at the touch of cold sheets, but held his ground until his body heat won out. He found that despite his physical condition, his mind far from dreaming and so he made every effort to fall asleep anyway, which became increasingly difficult as the mental image his mind had produced somewhere found itself unsuppressed and filled his head. He tried to tire his mind out by keeping it in check. He had reached a sort of stalemate and was beginning to feel the haze of sleep descend when he heard his door open.

He cracked on eye open and retained his steady breathing, not wanting to give any hints to a possible attacker. In the shadowed haze produced by the sliver of starlight leaking in from underneath the curtains he watched a small grey and pink form slip into the room without a whisper and close the door. Unsure about what was happening, he closed his eye and listened instead. Nick was surprised to find that that was all he needed. Somehow, he could identify her position without sight, and after a moment, he discovered he didn't even his hearing. It was like his body had attuned itself to her very presence, and it was a revelation that he internalized very quickly and made a point to remember.

Judy wasn't entirely sure what exactly she was doing. Her room had been cold, sure, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle. But she had still lain awake, unable to find sleep despite every effort. Which, somehow, had led her to this point.

She had no idea how heavy a sleeper Nick was, but so far, it seemed like she had gone without waking him. Somewhere in her frazzled and tired mind a plan had formulated, based on an offhand thought she'd had after Nick had woken up after the attack. She hadn't been able to recall a night when she'd slept better than that one, and so she had decided to sneak in, see if she could fall asleep, then wake up, as always, before him and pretend she'd been in her room the whole night through. So far, the plan was working.

She drifted in her pink nightie to the bad and slid onto the side Nick hadn't fallen upon and inserted herself into the still-cold covers. She curled up and faced his back, then closed her eyes, suddenly content. She opened them again as Nick rolled over, barely managing to not roll on top of her, but he was suddenly very close and facing her. His warm breath that smelled like spearmint, she could feel the very tips of the rough fur on bare chest tickling her nose. He smelled like lavender. He continued sleeping as if nothing had happened.

For a moment Judy almost panicked. As it now was, removing herself would surely wake Nick, and then she'd have some massively awkward explaining to do. The feeling didn't last long, Nick's proximity shut down almost every worrisome thought she could consider. So when Nick's arm came around to pull her closer she didn't resist.

"If you needed a hug-buddy, you could have just asked," he said quietly, his voice travelling no farther than it needed to. Judy pressed closer to him as a response and noticed something she hadn't back at the pastry shop. Beneath the course outer fur, Nick had an almost criminally soft undercoat that felt the way she imagined clouds did. The significance of this was not lost on her.

"You're soft." She mumbled into his chest and she felt Nick chuckle.

"Only for you, Carrots." He replied and she looked up at him.

"Really?" she asked softly.

"One hundred percent," he replied and went to poke a kiss on her forehead. He was caught off-guard, though, when a sudden shift from Judy turned it into a kiss on the lips.

Judy, now without the space between them, felt Nick's heart rate increase and knew he wasn't lying. They parted slowly before coming back together with an increase in intensity that neither of them initiated, but both accepted without complaint.

An alarming thought punched into Judy's mind with enough force to separate them again. Nick sensed her sudden dismay.

"Carrots, what's wrong?" he questioned with legitimate concern that he had made a terrible mistake somehow.

Judy struggled to find words, so they came out unsteady and confused. "Are you sure we should be doing this?" she whispered.

"What do you mean?" Nick asked, fully aware of what she meant.

"It's just… Who we are, what we are-"

"Doesn't matter to me, not anymore." Nick said, and suddenly Judy felt very foolish. She looked up at him with gratitude. "Because this is Zootopia, where anyone can be anything, and I, being part of that anyone, am in love with you, you dumb bunny." He finished with calm finality.

There it was, hanging now in the chilly air that floated around them. Judy took it and held it close.

"And I love you too, you sly fox." She said and tilted her head back for another kiss. Nick happily obliged, and suddenly it felt like any amount of space between them was too much, and the cold air bit just a little too hard for them to spare any amount of spare body heat, and even their minimal amount of clothing became an obstacle and was condemned to the floor. Soon the only way to tell the two mammals apart was color, and even then it was hard to tell.

Neither of them got much sleep, but hey, they were on vacation, so who cared?


	10. Chapter 85

Warm. Every last one of her few inches was warm. And when her eyes fluttered open she remembered the reason why. She found herself in what could only be described as a nest of dense red fur. Her front was pressed comfortably against Nick's, and his neck and lower jaw rubbed the top of her head softly as he breathed slowly. Behind her, his huge tail completed the circle, effectively hold her in and creating a space that seemed that it had never had any other purpose than to keep her safe and warm.

Normally, the idea that another mammal wanted to protect her would have made her angry, as more often than not, the sentiment would have revealed said mammal's attitude towards rabbits being small and therefore being helpless. But this was Nick, who, while also being one who knew full well that she did not require protection from almost anything, but also that any thoughts of defending her stemmed from entirely different reasons, ones far from condescending. So instead she was happy, and she smiled and snuggled deeper into Nick's soft undercoat. A soft sound from Nick drew her attention as she did so, and curiosity took over. With a paw, she rubbed the spot on his chest again, and slowly drifted around, gaging Nick's pleased whines until she believed she had found the sweet spot. Her massaging intensified and Nick whimpered and rolled onto his back as Judy followed, continuing her press. Nick's leg started kicking spasmodically then, disrupting the heavy blankets and letting the slightly colder air leak in around the edges.

Despite herself, Judy shivered and pressed herself back down, trying to restore the seal against the cold. Nick quieted almost immediately and suddenly Judy found herself sprawled directly atop him. She was suddenly very aware of the fact that they were both wearing nothing but their fur.

"I must admit, that is the first time anyone has woken me up in that manner," Nick said, his eyes still closed and Judy felt her ears exceed the temperature of their little space. Her attention has suddenly back on Nick's face however, as he had opened them and had been already looking directly into her eyes. How he had managed that she didn't know, but what she did know was that she could not bring herself to look away. Every sappy saying that pertained to the eyes being the windows to the soul suddenly made sense to her and she found herself drifting into those perfectly emerald orbs until she had come very close to him. Nick, apparently in the same situation, hardly reacted as their noses made contact and then returned the kiss that followed with an equal intensity as she offered.

They stayed like that for a long time, and when they slowly separated, neither of them had any words left. Except these.

"Is it snowing?" Judy asked, having noticed it through the slit between the curtains. Nick looked.

"It is." He answered.

Nick dashed around the tree and trying to steady his breathing so that it's cloud wouldn't give him away. Which was hard, given his canine disposition to pant. He chanced a glance around the trunk in the hopes of glimpsing his opponent, but ducked back as a projectile exploded against the wood inches from his face. He was forced to dash out from cover in the opposite direction, hoping that his speed would save him. He came to a more open space, and dove behind a snowbank on the other side, hoping to catch his attacker in the open with an ambush. He strained his hearing in that direction and heard the telltale sound of something tunneling under the already thick snow. He felt a grin come to his face. Big mistake.

With almost supernatural grace and silence, he crept out onto the snow, his toes spread wide to balance his weight more effectively. He sank no further than an inch into the foot-deep snow. He trusted his ears then, letting them swivel to follow the tunneling, and once he had a rough estimate of its path, he made ready his strike. As soon as his victim was in range, he took a mighty leap towards that cleared enough ground that his target wouldn't be able to detect it through the snow. He went up and then down like a red-furred missile, but just before impact, he expertly shot his paws down and apart, ready to catch his opponent between them.

He succeeded, and Judy screamed as they went on a cold somersaulting tumble through the snow, with her thoroughly trapped in his arms.

"Gotcha!" cried the white snow monster that Nick had suddenly become, before he realized that he was holding her upside-down and backwards.

He flipped her about to discover that she, too, had become something that looked more like a tiny, angry polar bear than a rabbit.

"I noticed," she pouted before Nick released her to shake the snow from his fur. After a moment, she did too.

"Two outta three?" Nick asked, trying to concede something to her in her defeat. He noticed that her gaze had fallen on something behind him, and he turned to see a mountain lake that had frozen over and become a perfect sheet of blue. Judy started toward it.

"C'mon Nick!" She said, and Nick did. He watched as she quickly slipped onto the ice before drifting silently out and turning a lazy circle. She motioned for him to follow, and he cautiously did, only to discover that despite the slick surface, his thick paw-pads proved more than enough to hold his footing. He just shrugged when Judy made a dissatisfied expression, but she drifted over and he caught her momentum. They fell into a dance, or at least she did, gliding around while he held as she spun and turned and mesmerized him.

They finished with a long pirouette that led to Judy falling back into Nick's waiting arm in the classic fashion, before the both of them broke into giggles and Nick lifted her back to her feet. They decided that they had had enough fun in the cold, and made their way back to the cabin to warm up.

And warm up they did.


	11. Chapter 9

Eli checked his watch for the third time in as many minutes. While the cold was far from bothering, there were things back in the city that required his attention, and the dryness wasn't helping his recently wounded condition. It hadn't been more than a week since his encounter with Savage's agent, but he was already more than ready for another meeting. He firmly believed in Charlie's motto of not having time to be hurt, and so he wasn't. But if he stayed out in this weather…

He straightened as the pair exited the cabin, and he noted their proximity, but decided to not say anything. Even if they hadn't noticed, Charlie and he had a long time ago, so he wasn't at all surprised when they veritably hugged their way out to the still-running car.

"Took you long enough," Eli remarked as he made his way back around to the driver's side from his position outside the passenger door. "You two should be well accustomed to waking up early."

He noted the rabbit's ears go from pink to red in the rear-view as he clambered in, and saw the fox's ear twitch over the opened trunk, where he was stowing their luggage.

Predawn light filtered through the light snow falling past the car as Eli made the speed limit and more through what where already dangerous mountain roads made doubly so because of the weather, and Nick was not-so-subtly reminded of many similar adventures with Finnick at the wheel, and although he was still around to remember them, it was not an experience he'd liked to have repeated, but Eli maintained control for every last second of the journey, even as he handed out what looked not dissimilar to case files to both of them. They were quite surprised by what they found inside.

"A masked ball? Seriously?" Nick scoffed, "Who does this Savage guy think he is, a king?"

Eli glanced back at him with a sarcastic grin. "Yeah, actually. That's exactly what he thinks he is, remember?" He put his eyes back on the snowy road. "The plan goes something like this;

"Judy, you're our in. Say what you will, but he finds rabbits specifically preferable to almost any other mammal on the planet, and as such, you'll scoot under his radar, hopefully. You'll be attending as a Ms. Caroline Gardner, a rich and curious possible benefactor to his plans. Nick, you're going as her manservant, which means no talking and complete subservience. Anything less might tip Savage off, and that is the last thing we want to happen. The files I just gave you are your objectives, try and get as many done as you can while maintaining anonymity. You have until Friday night to get your personas in place, after that, Charlie and I will take care of the rest. Got it?"

Both of the smaller mammals nodded, and the rest of their trip back to Zootopia was made in silence.

They reached the city shortly after sunrise, and after quick stops at each of their respective residencies, they reported into the Precinct in much the same fashion as they always had, almost. Only someone who had been meticulously observing their behavior towards each other would have noticed the complete lack of reserve that replaced the admittedly small amount that preceded it, the minute increase in wagging of Nick's tail, the way either one of their ears would perk up when the other was talking, the way Judy seemed to react just a bit faster than normal at anything that had to do with Nick, and a little slower if it wasn't. And so it was that Clawhauser barely got any work done that day.

"Have a nice vacation?" he asked as they were about to head home after a peaceful day in the Precinct, and Judy just about tripped on her own feet.

Nick, however, kept his cool. "We did, actually. Well worth the wait. Thanks for asking." He said and ushered Judy out the door, just in time to block out the sound of the heavyset cheetah trying his hardest to suppress a squeal.

They took a route that negated the site of their encounter with Carl, and although they'd just spent an entire weekend cooped up together, they lingered at the place where their paths would divide. Eventually they went their ways, and although she tried her hardest, Judy couldn't get the thought of Nick's stupid underfur out of her head. If she didn't know any better, one could've said that she'd become addicted. She'd reached the end of her patience and decide to pay him a visit when a knock sounded at her door. Fully expecting it to be Nick, she threw open the door to reveal exactly that, a sheepishly grinning fox.

"Evening, Carrots. I was just thinking about our little operation coming up, and realized that you'd probably need at least a little acting training before we don the masks." He said, "And I couldn't think of anyone better than yours truly."

Judy laughed. "Now that you mention it, I don't think that I could think of a better actor myself." She replied as she let Nick enter her abode.

"Then shall we get started?" Nick asked and swept into a profound bow, so deep and professional that Judy couldn't imagine him ever managing to stand back up again under his own power, but stand up he did, getting a giggle from Judy. Nick shook a finger. "Ms. Gardner would never laugh at such a simple thing as a bow," he said on a way that Judy could only imagine a butler would talk, which just made her giggle again.

Judy had always been quick on the uptake, so when their outfits were delivered on Thursday, she could curtsy six different ways and knew all the steps of any given ballroom dance. Those lessons with Nick had been her favorite, so much so that she forgot to ask why he knew them as well.

Nick's outfit consisted of a simple black vest and cream shirt, set with black slacks and a dark violet tie that matched the violets on Judy's dress. His mask was simple and elegant, befitting of a servant of Ms. Gardner, a stark white affair that hugged his face perfectly while casting his eyes into shadow, preventing anyone from making eye contact with him. Judy's dress was also a perfectly white affair, balanced by lines of violets that seemed to blossom around her neck and shoulders, a pattern repeated on her mask, a pair of violets blooming around the eye-holes against a white background that simultaneously hid and accentuated her eyes. Nick found himself glad that she couldn't see just how wide his eyes had gotten when she'd given him the go-ahead to re-enter the apartment.

"How much you think this all cost?" Nick remarked, trying to avoid looking directly at the dress, which was slightly lower cut than anything Judy would have chosen on her own.

"Way too much, that's for sure." Judy replied, pleased at Nick's reaction, which had revealed itself in the form of a rapidly wagging tail. The thought was replaced with worry, however, as she considered what they were about to try. Nick, somehow, sensed it too.

"Don't worry, Carrots," he said, and lifted his mask. "I'll be right beside you the whole time."

And Judy believed him.


	12. Chapter 10

The car that Charlie arrived in was nothing short of extravagant, looking tremendously out of place in front of the Grand Pangolin Arms, and it was a fact only cemented as they entered the rear seats through the suicide doors. And although Judy hadn't the slightest clue when it came to vehicle prices, Nick was sure its price tag would have made even Flash balk. The sleek black four-door bore no logos, and hummed low and deep, belying its smallish appearance. The upholstery was crimson-stitched white and felt like a limo despite the vehicle's normal length. Charlie too, looked expensive, with a chauffer's getup that put Mr. Big's company to shame.

He said nothing as Nick opened the door for Judy and maintained silence as Nick walked around the back to take his place in the left side of the car. They made small talk with each other as Charlie made his way to the Ball, which was being held in a huge estate near the edge of the city, outlining their objectives and psyching themselves up.

"So, we need to know how far along his project is, when it will be done, and identify any key players for his side." Said Nick, and Judy nodded.

"And if at all possible, see if we can get onboard as well," she added, "And from here on out, I have to call you Mason,"

"And I call you Milady." Nick finished, and Judy laughed softly before going quiet. Nick held up a fist. "We got this." He said.

Judy bumped his fist and brightened. "Yeah, we do."

The mansion was light up like a beacon, denying the night for almost an entire block. Charlie pulled them right up to the entrance as they donned their masks. Nick put his internal mask on as well before emerging from his side and moving to open Judy's door for her. She verily floated out in perfect form and headed for the entryway as Nick closed the door and Charlie vanished into the early evening. Nick joined his partner, standing just behind and to her right, his paws resting loosely together at the small of his back. He noted that Judy was walking exactly as he had taught her, with her head up, back straight, and her paws nested together in front of her perfectly. They didn't stop as a timber wolf opened the rather ostentatiously large door for them, and they found themselves at the point of no return.

Neither of them hesitated.

Both of them, professionals of their craft through different means, took in the sight before them with just a few glances. The most glaring thing was the glaring majority of attendants being rabbits, and each of them being escorted be a larger predator escort, not unlike themselves. There were a few sheep, and even several mice that rode in the palms of their underlings. And that was the word both of them thought of at the same moment. In here, no predator was more than an underling, and it was a fact neither of them missed.

Party-goers milled about, wolves, leopards, even a polar bear, always just a few steps away. Tables staffed by more predators provided elegant confections that always seemed to vary in the favor of an herbivorous diet, and more of them floated through the huge room with glasses of wine in varying sizes. None was ever offered to the predators.

While everyone else seemed quite content with the circumstances, the pair suddenly felt unease at the behavior, but, wisely, they kept it at bay for the sake of the mission.

They blended quite well, despite Nick finding himself the only fox in attendance, and they quickly learned that their host was due to arrive soon, and just as Judy declined another offer of wine, he appeared at the banister above the far end of the hall, and the duo finally got their first look at their new enemy.

"Ladies and Gentle-mammals," he announced and the room quieted.

"Tonight, tonight we celebrate the eve of a new world!" he cried, his voice carrying through the massive room with ease. "So eat! Drink! Make merry! This is but a taste of the future, so make the most of it!"

To Nick, the fact that Jack Savage was a hare was nothing. He'd been where he was for too long to ever underestimate anyone, so this revelation, while strange, was not unexpected. Judy, on the other hand, became angry. She knew full well that many mammals would look down on rabbits by default, but this Jack Savage had crossed a line. She watched him descend the stairs to the ballroom floor and was prepared to give him a piece of her mind before she felt Nick's tail flick against hers. She glanced back at his expressionless façade and he subtly shook his head. If anyone could have guessed her reaction, it was him.

They maintained anonymity until they reached the moment of truth.

"Mr. Savage, yes?" Judy said with just the right cadence and pronunciation that had Nick mentally fist-pumping.

The tallish hare turned towards them and Nick took note that he was no longer alone in the room. Even Savage had an escort, an arctic vixen, who, until a certain encounter in an ice-cream parlor many months ago, Nick would have found quite attractive.

Jack wore a definitely expensive three-piece suit in blood-red, and a mask that matched. It also shadowed his eyes like Nick's, and even with his sensitive eyes, Nick could only catch an occasional flash of blue. They both noted his patterning, Nick assuming it dyed and Judy thinking it merely peculiar.

"That is in fact me," he answered before taking Judy's offered paw and kissing it. He glanced briefly at Nick before standing back upright and returning his attention to Judy. "What can I do for you, Ms. Gardner?" he asked pleasantly.

For a second Nick was worried that Judy would panic at the mention of her false name, but she made no indications of such an occurrence, and instead pressed on with their mission.

"I'm afraid I'm a little lost on this 'new world' you are planning to create, and had hoped you would clarify," she said perfectly.

"Of course," Savage answered. "You are new to this ideal, are you not?"

Judy nodded daintily.

"It is as I said, we are creating a new world, a world in which the hunter fears the hunted," he said casually. "A glorious rewrite of the rules that have governed our world for too long. And I have decided to make of myself the harbinger of this rebirth, that it may work its proper course without complications." He paused, a glint of what might have been mania in his eyes fading as he breathed. "Your presence here tonight has assured you a place in the new world, and it I place I'd not have taken by any other." He said, but his flattery fell on uncaring ears. It took everything Judy had, and another tail flick, to keep her from throttling this maniac right then and there.

"I believe that your cause is certainly worth looking into," she barely managed to say. "How soon can I expect this revolution to begin?" she asked simply.

"It is already begun," he replied, and both Nick and Judy barely kept themselves in character. "We have begun in the shadows, so that when the time comes, and it comes soon, it will be too late to stop us." He said before becoming distracted by another mammal, all but forgetting them.

They managed through the dancing, Judy even finding herself stuck with Jack Savage for a song. She said nothing then, feigning embarrassment, when the heat in her cheeks was truly born of anger. After that, Judy and Nick slipped away and looked for a place to discuss their next step. They eventually found an unused sunroom, dark despite the huge windows, that held nothing but furniture that was covered by dust-cloths.

"We can't just leave, that'd be suspicious." Nick remarked as Judy sat on a covered couch.

"I don't care. We got what we came for, so we should just go." Judy countered.

"I know, but,-" He stopped as his ears caught something from the hall opposite the door they'd entered from. Judy heard it too, and they both fell silent. The door opened, and a smaller mammal stumbled through. Despite the darkened room, Judy thought she saw the tell-tale glint of a police badge.

"John?" Judy mumbled, and looked at Nick, who shrugged. They made their way through the darkened room, dodging the hulking, white shapes of furniture.

"Harrison?" Nick asked quietly once they were closer, and the hare jerked towards them in confusion.

"Wilde? Hopps? What the devil are you two doing here?" he asked.

"We could ask you the same thi-" The heartbeat of time it took Nick's night vision to see the stripes wasn't long enough. He saw the gun appear, the barrel extended by what he knew to be a suppressor. He even saw the slide blow back as it fired.

The sudden numbness in the left side of his gut told him all he needed to know.

He pressed a paw to the wound and brought it before his face. Yep, he'd definitely gotten shot.

The numbness was abruptly a burning pain that dropped him to his knees.

"Nick?" Judy cried as she realized what had happened, and she turned on what had been a hare named John Harrison.

She too, was too late.

Faster than even she could follow, a backhand shattered her mask and sent her sprawling. Stunned, but not down, she tried to come back up swinging, but he caught her fist and began twisting. Grimacing, she went for a leg sweep, but he released her paw and tucked his legs up, dodging the maneuver. Realizing this, she used the momentum of the sweep to propel herself back, finding the dress had been seemingly designed with her fighting style in mind. She could detect no hindrance of movement. She decided to ask Charlie where he had acquired such an outfit.

The thought didn't last long, as Savage lifted another firearm. Judy felt dread creep up around her. Even with her speed, at this range, there was no way he could miss. She wrenched herself sideways anyway, to no avail. But instead of a bullet, she felt what must have been a dart plunge into her shoulder. It was there no more than a second before she tore it free and tossed it the side.

A second was more than long enough.

Her vision began to swim, and she suddenly found herself struggling to keep her balance. Then darkness crept into the edges of her vision and she turned her gaze to Nick, who, somehow, was trying to get his feet. He slipped in his own blood and collapsed, and Judy fell into darkness.

Nick had barely been aware of the fight. His attention was focused singularly on not bleeding to death. He hardly felt it when he hit the ground again, to find that it was oddly warm, and wet. He didn't think about it too much as he tried to stand again, one paw pressing as hard as he could manage on his wound while doing so. He didn't have time to be hurt, Judy was still in danger.

Standing up proved to be the hardest thing he had ever tried to do, but he somehow managed it and his vision cleared enough for him to take in the scene before him.

"Officer Hopps, if you would kindly execute this mongrel for me, it would make me very happy." Said the voice that belonged to both Jack Savage, and the farce that had been John Harrison. Nick could see him hand something to Judy, who stood calmly out of view from him. Had his mind not been preoccupied with staying alive, he might have noticing something was wrong. As it was, he didn't realize it until Savage stepped aside and he saw Judy.

She stood ridged, like she'd been strapped to a board, and clutched in one paw the same gun the hare had used on him. Her eyes though, those beautiful violet pools, where dull. Lifeless.

Nick staggered forward, causing him to grit his teeth. "Carrots?" he whispered, horror filling his heart. "Judy! It's me Nick!" he suddenly found himself on his knees as Savage ruthlessly kicked the back of his knee. "Carrots! Fight it! Don't let him win!" he gasped, his breath slowly becoming more difficult to find.

In response, she lifted the gun until the barrel lined up with his eyes. He never stopped looking at her face, bloodied by the shattering mask, looking for some sign, some indication of a hustle.

It didn't come.

"Now be a good little Officer and put him out of his misery." He heard Savage say from slightly behind him. Every fiber of Nick's being wanted nothing more than to turn on the hare and tear him to pieces, but he could not. If this was the way it ended for him, then at least he knew he had lived the last fraction of his live as an honest mammal.

He closed his eyes and thought back to only other time he could remember feeling so helpless. And how he had simply accepted the fate they had forced on him. He could almost chuckle at it now.

And so he did. After a moment, the chuckle became a laugh, and he laughed until it became a cough, and he felt blood on his teeth.

"How undignified. As I'd expect from a predator." He heard Savage say beside him, but he hardly cared. "Hurry up and finish him, Hopps!"

Under power drawn from a source that even he didn't understand, Nick rose once more. The gun followed to accommodate, and he didn't care about that either. He pressed his forehead right up against the end of the suppressor and smiled.

He reached up with his free right paw and touched her cheek, where his blood mixed with hers. "If there is any of you left in there, then there's enough of you to trust," he whispered.

He noted tears appearing around the bottom of her eyes just before the glass in one of the huge windows turned to shards. Savage snatched the gun away from Judy and then tugged the rabbit herself along with him, holding her in front of him as a shield. He also pressed the suppressor against her jaw. Nick barely registered the two mammals kitted out in black uniforms and carrying PDWs as they entered the room through the now empty windowsill, as he was blacking out and falling to the floor again. He did see, however, Jack back out of the room with Judy as a hostage. They vanished just before one of the black-suited followed suit, and the last thing he heard was;

"I've got you, Nick."

 **And so ends Part One, Muahahahaha! I am as of now, debating on whether or not to create a Part Two, but as this little quibble exists, I believe that the chances of this continuing are quite good. See you all on the flipside!**


End file.
